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The Nailed On True Facts About Burnley

All the facts that you will need to know to engage Burnley fans in conversation in the pub before and after Sunday's game.

1. Burnley Football Club was formed in 1882, as this was 6 years before the Football League was formed in 1888 that meant they didn't do much for the first few years of their existence, mainly training, eating pies and discussing the latest fashion in clogs.

2. They were originally called Burnley Rovers, but quickly changed the name when they realised that firstly local rivals Blackburn had a team of the same name, secondly poor public transport in the Burnley area meant they weren't able to do much roving and thirdly there had been a poor take up of membership of the club in the local canine community and Burnley Fidos sounded plain slly.

3. Although Blackburn are their biggest rivals, they are not the nearest, Accrington Stanley occupy the middle ground between the two clubs and currently have bragging rights after defeating Burnley in the cup last season, an event that saw dozens of Burnley supporters hospitalised after accidentally nailing their hands as well as their season tickets to the gates of Turf Moor.

4. Burnley has the biggest affiliated Saints supporters club in England, due to many players from the Southampton area playing for the club in recent years, also several ex Burnley players have come South, the £7 million they received for Jay Rodriguez funding amongst other charitable efforts , a refurbishment of the visitors end toilets, the Jay Rodriguez Pie & Pea stall in the Bee Hole Stand and a 10 year supply of white line marking for the pitch.

5. Burnley have not always played in claret and blue, this was only adopted in 1910, when after playing in a variety of kits they decided to adopt the colours of Aston Villa after a pub brawl with the Peaky Blinders crew at a 5th round FA Cup tie.

6. Burnley is the only place in England that has sub titles on normal television channels, this was instigated after an investigation showed that the Burnley dialect owes little to the English language with the English word "The" not in the language at all, indeed the Burnley dialect only has one vowel, the letter U thus the English phrase "I am going to the pub my good fellow" is "um gun t t pub m gud lud"

7. Burnley University has qualified for University Challenge on only three occasions, the last being in 1974 when the energy crisis meant that opponents Cambridge were unable to get to the studio.

8. The national dress of Burnley is very similar to that of Holland with clogs being worn in daily usage.

9 Burnley has more miles of canals that Southampton which doesn't have any canals at all, however it has nowhere near as many as Venice.

10. The Weavers Triangle is not as you may think one of the most important instruments in the Burnley Milling Association's brass band, but an area in the town which was the centre of the weaving industry.

11. Burnley is twinned with the Italian City of Milano (Milan in English, or Mlunu as it is pronounced in Burnley) this is because of close links in the 18th century where Burnley supplied the cloth that enabled Milan to be the fashion capital of the world, it is written in the statute of Milano City council that any resident of Burnley is entitled to his first drink free in any of the City's bars.

Dos anyone else know any interesting facts about our visitors on Sunday ?

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